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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
Dr. Xi (Charlie) Ren, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, delivers a detailed overview of his lab's mission to provide regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs.
Xi Ren focused on developmental biology during his graduate study, specifically, vascular and hematopoietic systems. He later joined the Laboratory for Organ Engineering and Regeneration at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Xi Ren was named Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 2016. During his tenure, he developed systematic strategies for engineering functional vasculature based on decellularized organ scaffolds. Xi Ren became a member of the faculty at the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2017. Xi Ren earned a BS in biological science, as well as a Ph.D. in cell biology from the prestigious and highly ranked, Peking University in China.
Xi Ren discusses his work at the Ren Lab, specifically the interface of biomaterial and stem cell engineering with a primary objective to successfully provide regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs. The Ren Lab's other prime areas of interest in exploration and research are vascular engineering, extracellular matrix engineering, cardiopulmonary engineering, and whole organ decellularization and regeneration. The Ren Lab is working to develop biologically selective and chemoselective approaches enabling extracellular matrix modulation and functionalization to stimulate injury repair in vivo and whole-organ bioengineering in vitro. Xi Ren talks about the shortage of lungs and livers and how his lab is working on ways to bioengineer lungs and livers with very similar structure and composition to their native counterparts, for transplantation. He discusses the details of organ structure and the difficulty of developing biomedically-engineered models of native organs.
The biomedical engineering expert talks about the limitations in his area of research and the importance of gathering excellent cells for lung reconstruction. And while stem cell biology is progressing, limitations still exist. He details the ways cells are used in regard to regeneration, discussing scaffolding, functionality, phenotypes, etc., and other issues. Xi Ren discusses bringing different cell types together to do a single job, to make a good functional organ, and the importance of organization in the process of organ regeneration. He details the methods utilized to work with purified cells and maintain them, and how it is possible to work with multiple cells within a specific organ.
Xi Ren talks about vasculature regarding transplantations, and how many organs' key function is in their interaction with blood. He discusses the various vasculatures of multiple organs and their distinct characteristics that play a role in functioning. Further, Xi Ren expounds upon some areas of research he expects to see expand in the future.
The vascular network permeates literally every tissue and organ, and displays unique structures and properties to meet organ-specific functions as well as physiology. The Ren Lab's research seeks to understand the molecule profiles behind organ-specific vascular phenotypes with the ultimate goal of engineering organ-specific vasculature.
Just around the corner is the publication of Exosomes in Health and Disease, an enormous compilation of data on exosomes and their role in almost every disease you can imagine. What's an exosome, you might ask? At just a fraction of the size of even the smallest bacteria, exosomes are tiny vesicles communicating with and carrying information to cells anywhere in the body. We've known about them for decades, but a recent discovery holds huge implications for our understanding of epigenetics, epigenetic inheritance, and the causes of diseases.
Denis Noble, physiologist, researcher, and former Chair of Cardiovascular Physiology at the University of Oxford joins the podcast today to offer a fascinating conversation about the presence of epigenetic data within exosomes, their ability to control the genome of other cells by simply communicating with them, and the profile components that could indicate cancer or a particular disease state.
He also discusses the techniques used to extract such small vesicles from blood plasma and the challenges that this process has brought about, the transmission of epigenetic information by exosomes through the germline, symbiogenesis, and more.
Tune in for all the details.
"It all stems back to my Fit2Fat2Fit journey, where I learned just how wrong I was with my approach to trying to transform people; I could give someone the best meal plans, I could give them the best workouts, I could give them the best hacks to optimize their brain and their body from a physical perspective, but none of that matters unless a person knows to how to overcome their own mental and emotional challenges…so that's what I hope to bring to the fitness industry," says Drew Manning, who simply couldn't understand why it was so difficult for his clients to stick to a meal and exercise plan in order to lose weight and get fit.
What did he do? He decided to truly "walk the walk": he quit working out and indulged an unrestricted typical American diet filled with processed foods for six months, gained 75 pounds, and saw his health rapidly decline before working his way back to being fit and healthy. What he learned along the way is that the aspects of mental and emotional health are largely overlooked in the health and fitness industry, but absolutely essential to becoming healthy and fit.
Drew Manning will be speaking on this topic at the 2019 Metabolic Health Summit slated for January 31-February 3, and his latest book, Complete Keto, will be released on February 12th. It's a compilation of the latest and greatest keto research and contains a 30-day program that relies heavily on lessons from his Fit2Fat2Fit journey. It's available now for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Tune in for the full conversation and check out fit2fat2fit.com for more.
As a board-certified family nurse practitioner working in a sleep medicine clinic, Ellen Wermter has seen a wide variety of sleep disorders, including severe cases of sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome. She joins the podcast to discuss what she sees from this unique perspective—one that isn't often portrayed at all or portrayed correctly in the media. For example, she explains that narcolepsy is not only underrecognized but also misunderstood by many people; contrary to popular belief, the main presentation of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness—not unexpected episodes of falling to the ground and entering a deep sleep.
Wermter discusses how "excessive daytime sleepiness" is defined and identified clinically, the causes of narcolepsy—which are likely both genetic and environmental in nature—and one of the newest types of treatment for narcolepsy, which is not yet FDA-approved, but can be used in the US through a program called PEACE since it's been shown to be successful in Europe.
She also discusses sleep paralysis and cataplexy, which happen when the REM stage of sleep intrudes on the waking hours, one of the lesser common symptoms of sleep apnea, and how sleep studies work—despite the challenges.
Tune in for the full conversation, and find resources by visiting the Narcolepsy Network, Project Sleep, the National Sleep Foundation, and local support groups.
Dr. Martin Giera is an associate professor at Leiden University researching clinical metabolomics, the study of metabolites and how they take part in biochemical processes. Ultimately, the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of human physiology and the physiological processes of specific diseases, which could open the door to novel treatments and diagnostic processes for cancer and other diseases which we don't currently understand.
Dr. Giera discusses a range of topics, including the role of the microbiome in metabolism, the Warburg effect, how the metabolic differences between different types of cancers indicate the need for personalized therapy for cancer, and what's on the horizon for him and his team in the coming months. Tune in for all the details.
Eric C. Westman, MD, MHS, chief medical officer of HEAL Clinics (healclinics.com), specializing in diabetes remission and weight loss, delivers a thorough analysis on the nutritional and medical significance of carbohydrate reduction.
Dr. Westman has a deep level of experience in medicine with a specialization in lifestyle-related conditions and illnesses, such as obesity and diabetes, as well as other medical issues, treatments, and research. He is the co-founder and chief medical officer of HEAL Clinics. Dr. Westman's clinics are the creators of HEALcare, a comprehensive treatment plan for obesity, pre-diabetes, and type 2 diabetes that integrates personalized keto dietary and nutrition coaching with group behavioral coaching, as well as any needed medical care. HEALcare is a non-medical weight-loss program implemented by specialized counselors who have already brought about dramatic, significant changes in their own lives by adapting ketogenic lifestyles. HEALcare is medically supervised and thus offers complete obesity and diabetes treatment program.
In addition to his intensive work at HEAL Clinics,
Dr. Westman is also the director of the Duke Lifestyle Medicine Clinic, and medical director of the Duke Center for Smoking Cessation. Dr. Westman is a board certified doctor in internal medicine as well as obesity medicine. He is the co-editor of, Obesity: Evaluation and Treatment Essentials, and co-author of The New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great, and Cholesterol Clarity: What the HDL Is Wrong with My Numbers?
Dr. Westman discusses his intensive research as an internal medicine and obesity doctor focused on the body's ability to create its own ketones by cutting out carbohydrates. He explains the difference between exogenous and endogenous ketones, and some of the fallacies and breakthroughs in nutrition-based research. Dr. Westman talks about his early work at Duke University and experimentation in clinic trials that motivated him to devote more time to studying how nutrition impacts the body. He states that over the last few decades, research has demonstrated that cutting carbs has a significant impact actually. By cutting out the carbs, the body begins to burn its own fat. The big shift in thinking came when the medical community began to understand that the governmental guidelines issued in the 70s promoting carbohydrates were not truly the best advice. The outdated guidelines promoted avoiding fats and eating healthy carbohydrates, neither of which was based in evidence.
Dr. Westman talks in-depth about the specifics of keto, and how the reduction of sugar, eating healthy fats, etc. is good for the body. He talks about the impact of keto on the body and the importance of still considering calories in regard to weight loss. It's possible to ingest too much of a good thing, meaning that even if the foods and oils are extremely healthy, a very high caloric intake can certainly prevent weight loss from occurring. As everyone has their own metabolism, individuals will experience variations as they work toward finding their perfect diet for great health. Dr. Westman discusses Harvard research and Duke University studies that deal with weight gain, metabolic rate, etc., as well as the importance of caloric deficits for losing weight. But ultimately, most people can probably eat more and still lose weight when on a keto diet, as opposed to other diets.
Dr. Westman details how he works with patients, outlining his preferences such as beginning work with diabetes patients before they are put on a medication regimen. Dr. Westman states that all patients should be given a choice, and that diet and lifestyle changes can reverse the condition without medications. He talks about metabolic rate in regard to eating habits, such as intermittent fasting, etc. Regarding keto, and carb-cutting success, Dr. Westman discusses the early studies and trial and error approaches to cutting carbs such as were developed by Dr. Atkins, and others. And he adds that proper carb intake amounts for individuals seeking to achieve optimum health and weight loss/management are certainly related to age and activity level. Younger, more active people, as you would expect, can eat more carbs daily and still see results. Older and/or more sedentary individuals may need to restrict carb intake more significantly.
Dr. Westman is currently the president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, and a fellow of the Obesity Society and the Society of General Internal Medicine. His extensive clinical research includes more than 45 peer-reviewed papers on the efficacy of ketogenic diets and lifestyle in the management of type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, and obesity.
Peter Csathy, founder and chairman of CREATV Media, LLC (creatv.media), delivers an insightful overview of new media and technology, and the immersive experience.
Csathy is an experienced media and technology entrepreneur—equal parts connector, advisor, investor, entrepreneur, executive, and strategic thinker. He spent his early career in traditional media then expanded along with the advancing technologies into new media and digital platforms. His long and impressive resume includes important leadership roles with multiple highly successful companies in the tech and media space. Csathy is the former CEO of many leading media companies and is an internationally recognized media and technology expert.
Csathy has received many accolades for his books covering the topics of his expertise. Forbes referred to his book, Media 2.0 (18): An Insider's Guide to Today's Digital Media World & Where It's Going, as "an invaluable guide to the new media universe" and Variety stated it was "brilliant and compelling" and a "must-read."
Csathy talks about CREATV Media's mission as a media, entertainment, and tech business advisory firm working with companies that are pushing boundaries and the edge of creativity. CREATV Media is an advanced advisory service firm in the media/tech space and is recognized as an industry leader. Csathy's firm offers specialized access to an impressive network of media, entertainment, and technology leaders, and powerful influencers. Csathy states that his team is comprised of connectors, dealmakers, and 'opportunity' spotters.
Csathy discusses some of his early companies and investments in the media, music, and tech space. He delves into the changing immersive space, that goes beyond VR, and takes it into a real world experience, bringing the technology into the field where users can walk around and interact with others. Csathy details his exciting immersive projects with Vortex Immersion Media, Inc., an advanced tech company of which he serves as chairman. Vortex Immersion Media produces innovative dome experiences, in which users can experience music and visuals in a 360-degree environment that envelope you in a 3D, virtual reality type experience.
The media expert talks about his vision for future immersive experiences, such as immersive escape rooms where people can literally escape to other worlds or environments for relaxation and play, etc. He explains how the technology can truly impact our perceptions in a real way, physiologically. Csathy gives an overview of some immersive experiences hospitals are implementing for children with illnesses, providing immersive environments that allow them to experience snow covered mountains, or other natural worlds that provide relief and comfort, and are fun. And amazingly, the children experience physiological impacts that actually reduce their physical pain in the same manner that drugs do.
Csathy discusses innovative media such as Netflix's release of "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," one of the first truly interactive movie experiences ever released on a mass scale. Netflix created multiple experiences, variations on story lines, that allow a viewer to choose the path the story takes. As technology continues to advance, the opportunity to bring new, immersive experiences to users is immense. An immersive experience can bring new audiences to art and expressive media. Csathy discusses his excitement about using advancing technologies to essentially bring many musical artists back into the public eye in a unique manner, experiencing their artistry in entirely new ways—opening up younger generations to great music of the past.
The media guru expounds upon some of the technology that is changing the Hollywood industry, and his expectations for media in the coming years. Additionally, he discusses some of the topics and issues he writes about in his book, as well as in periodicals of note. Csathy's thoughts and perspectives on the nexus of technology and media are regularly featured in The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Venturebeat, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TheWrap, Billboard, USA Today, and many more. Csathy is a board member and advisor to multiple media and tech companies.
John Hamilton, CEO of UNLTD (go-unlimited.co), a company that is blazing the trail forward in the design, creation, and branding of high-end virtual reality experiences, delivers an interesting overview of the advances in virtual and augmented reality.
Hamilton talks about his background, and starting out in the film industry as a producer and distribution executive. He recounts how his first interaction with a true VR experience so impressed him that he was hooked, and had to find a way to explore this exciting new area, bringing all of his business experience to the burgeoning VR and AR (augmented reality) media platforms.
Hamilton's company, UNLTD, seeks to push the boundaries of the industry, creating new experiences that combine all available technologies in the space. Virtual and augmented reality are exciting new mediums—hybrids between interactive media, immersive and dramatic cinematic content, and mobile experiences. UNLTD offers branded and original VR/360/AR content for groundbreaking immersive and interactive media that includes film, gaming, series, apps, and advertising. Specifically, UNLTD has expertise in directing and developing VR arcade installations, content production, virtual reality, augmented reality, interactivity, 360 visual effects, and 3D environments.
Hamilton explains the details of VR, AR, and mixed or hybrid reality experiences, and how each works. He details how an individual experiences each, from screen to headset, etc. or combinations that come together to create a completely immersive experience. He talks about his earlier work in VR for film and branding, and how he and his partners shifted their focus to encompass new media experiences for multiple industries from oil & gas, to medical, and beyond. He states that their primary focus, and the source of their greatest revenue, will be in the enterprise market. Enterprise marketing is essentially a development strategy to retain an existing customer base while generating new active leads via integrated, multichannel campaigns. Hamilton talks about their clients and the reasons why they come to UNLTD to rebrand or get moving in a new exciting direction to grow their business.
The VR guru discusses how they bring their unique storytelling skills to every new project, for not only an immersive experience, but also one that cannot become boring, due to the creative story that is developed for the experience. Hamilton cites specific examples of their work and projects. He provides an overview of a particular oil & gas project UNLTD developed that is essentially a game simulation which allows users to perform the requisite checks to ensure all is in working order, from checking a manifold for proper connection, to reviewing inspection dates on equipment, and much more. He states that this type of simulation is a highly effective way to train people in a safe environment before they even take one step onto a ship, so they can be prepared for their jobs in onloading or offloading or whatever it may be.
Hamilton enthusiastically discusses a new experience/show called Trinity, which his team has developed and is very excited about. Trinity is an immersive, interactive, virtual reality sci-fi experience that incorporates live-action characters, big budget movie VFX, and the most trendsetting interactive design. He outlines some of the details of their volumetric capture and how they were able to go back and forth between live and volumetric. Volumetric video is a progressive technique that captures a three dimensional space, such as a specific location or performance. With this process you can acquire data that can then be viewed on flat screens as well as via 3D displays and VR goggles.
UNLTD generates tailored, branded and original VR content for truly interactive media experiences, including films, games, series, advertising, promotional stunts, rides, as well as for educational and medical applications, and other industries.
David Korsunsky, founder and CEO of Heads Up Health, delivers an important overview of the current state of health information and steps we can all take to organize our health data.
For more than 15 years Korsunsky has been a business leader, leading technology firms and forming strategic alliances. Recently, Korsunsky served as Director of Technical Alliances at VMware, Inc. where he led partnerships with global EHR companies such as GE, EPIC, Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, and others. Korsunsky is active and believes in a healthy lifestyle, and it was his passion for good health that inspired him to find a new way to innovate in the healthcare space. Korsunsky sought to create a means for everyone to take charge of their health, by accessing important markers that elucidate where they are on the path to optimum health.
Korsunsky talks about his sources of inspiration, from nutritionists to select nonconventional health advocates, who introduced him to a trove of information that was not always the go-to for traditional medicine practitioners. Realizing how his own personal medical information was literally scattered all over the place from healthcare office to office and patient portal to portal, Korsunsky knew there had to be a better way. He had a tremendous desire to find a way to connect his lifestyle choices with the blood work that would bear out his theories on diet and exercise, etc. Korsunsky founded Heads Up Health, a company that seeks to empower people, helping them to transform their health through the use of state of the art tracking tools. His team of experienced and knowledgeable health-conscious technology experts wanted to clean up the current system fraught with confusing medical records, underutilized health-tracking technologies, and poorly managed health data. Korsunsky saw a way to implement a software solution to clean up the mess and get to the heart of the matter—improving health for everyone by connecting them to their own data.
The healthcare tech expert discusses how important trend lines can be totally missed by physicians when health records are scattered and unorganized. And when physicians cannot see the full picture over a long period of time, they are unfortunately less aptly equipped to make the best decisions on long-term care plans for treatment or general health advice. Korsunsky states that the onus is upon the patient, in most systems, for them to be their own advocate and investigate deeply into their own personal medical issues. He details how these markers of our health, the look into our blood work and body chemistry, are essentially our longevity numbers and it is important for individuals to know where they stand, to understand what needs work or improvement.
Korsunsky outlines how their platform works and how users can enter their medical data and get active right away at tracking their health and making improvements. He discusses some of the important aspects of their system, such as tracking HOMA-IR (Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance) scores, which as he states is significantly better than simply looking at blood sugar. He explains how their platform actually collects data while we sleep, from heart rate to core temperature and beyond, to calculate a score and overall assessment of our recovery during sleep. Additionally, he elaborates on public data sets and useful information that he wants their users to have access to through the platform, to allow them to be notified about pharmaceutical news and more that could affect them.
Korsunsky discusses their growth as a small company on the rise. He details how it is important to build out their system slowly and organically. Currently, they have tens of thousands of users and are growing via word of mouth. As their product is an intricate product its pace of growth is carefully controlled by Korsunsky and his team of developers.
Korsunsky enthusiastically discusses the personal fulfillment he experiences when he hears stories of users who have learned to successfully manage or reduce certain chronic health problems by getting a handle on their data and working toward solutions to improve health. Based on his team's core belief that superbly organized data is a critical key to improving and optimizing health, Heads Up Health has created a central space where anyone can manage and explore the important information that is crucial to maintaining great health or improving their health issues
Elle Russ, wellness advocate and author of The Paleo Thyroid Solution, provides a wealth of knowledge on thyroid issues and explains how millions of people remain undiagnosed and suffer needlessly.
Elle Russ is a sought-after guest on many wellness-oriented shows and interviewee of wellness-related blogs and magazines. Her celebrated book, The Paleo Thyroid Solution, is a bestseller on Amazon and has made her a noted voice in the paleo, primal, and ancestral health movement. Russ is also the popular host of The Primal Blueprint Podcast, a top-ranked health show created by food blogger, former distance runner, triathlete, and well known New York Times Bestselling author, Mark Sisson.
Russ discusses her serious bouts with hypothyroidism, how it impacted her life, and how none of her doctors were offering much help. With over 30 symptoms, Russ started digging deeper to discover the root of her health maladies. She details how so many common issues from depression to cholesterol problems to high blood pressure are directly related to the thyroid. As she states, the thyroid is the master gland of the human body, without a doubt. From metabolism to production of hormones, the thyroid is the source from which many bodily functions and systems are maintained or regulated. Brain fog, exhaustion, inability to lose weight, etc., the list goes on and on, and the thyroid is the key to so much in our body and its systems.
Russ elaborates on the many and various antibody tests, and others, that help to define potential thyroid issues. As she states, over 20 million people in the US suffer from thyroid-related issues, but sadly 60% are undiagnosed and struggle with symptoms from which they can find no relief. Her book covers many important topics such as paleo protocols for preventing and reversing low thyroid function, the correct blood tests to diagnose hypothyroidism and how to treat it, how to diagnose and treat Reverse T3 issues, how to lose weight gained because of hypothyroidism, and much more.
She discusses the importance of nutritional experimentation and elimination of foods that contribute to problems, as well as many other issues that have a direct impact on health. She talks about brand name versus generic pharmaceuticals and details some specific drugs in which the generic version could be contributing to more or other problems or symptoms. She outlines specifics of T3 and T4 drugs and hormone replacement therapy. Triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) are the two major hormones produced by the thyroid gland. There are many factors that are important, but one particularly important issue is to make sure your drug choice is suited for you, and that your lab work provides proof that whatever combination therapy you are on, that it is working for you. She discusses the many inaccurate assessments the healthcare industry has made regarding thyroid and thyroid drug issues.
The thyroid health guru talks about fluctuating signals and lab indicators, and the importance of seeing the big picture when interpreting results and implementing treatment and drug plans. And importantly, she underscores that physicians need to look at multiple test results and not just one or two to properly diagnose these issues. Russ relates how her struggle to find the answers to her own health problems really motivated her to help others, and that is just what she does day in and day out.
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